Somali Islamic Fighters Flee Toward Kenya

Government Gains Control of Last Stronghold; Embassy Bombing Suspects Pursued

NAIROBI, Jan. 1 -- Ethiopian forces backing Somalia's weak transitional government have taken over Kismaayo, the last stronghold of the country's Islamic movement, and on Monday were chasing the remnants of the Islamic militia along the Indian Ocean coast toward the Kenyan border about 100 miles to the south.

In the final stage of a dramatic power shift in the fragile Horn of Africa nation, the Islamic fighters abandoned their heaviest weapons early Monday morning and took off for villages in the forest, with Ethiopian and government troops in hot pursuit of key leaders, including three suspects in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

"Our forces have captured Kismaayo," Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi told reporters in Mogadishu, where Ethiopian forces installed his secular, internationally recognized government just days ago. "The warlord era in Somalia is now over."

Gedi has given fighters loyal to the Islamic movement, which was organized under an umbrella group called the Council of Islamic Courts, three days to disarm, and promised amnesty for those who do. Government officials said that in Kismaayo, hundreds of fighters had turned over their weapons Monday and were returning to their clans.

With the most hard-core militiamen headed their way, Kenyan authorities on Monday tightened security along their border with Somalia, which extends for more than 420 miles. Many of the large number of Somali refugees in Kenya may be sympathetic to the Islamic leaders, and analysts say it would be easy for the fighters to melt into the local population.

Kenyan and Somali government officials have said that if they capture the three embassy bombing suspects, they will hand them over to the U.S. government. Meanwhile, some analysts speculated that the Kenyan government, which has pushed the Somali transitional government to include the more moderate leaders of the Islamic Courts movement, might allow those leaders to take refuge in Kenya.

On Monday, Gedi called for the quick deployment to Somalia of a peacekeeping force from the 53-country African Union. That force would in theory replace the Ethiopian troops who are guarding the vulnerable new government but are also causing tensions among Somalis who consider them invaders.

Abdikarin Farah, the Somali ambassador to Ethiopia, said that a long-standing request for U.S. military assistance was also on the table.

"We are pursuing that request, and I won't be surprised if that comes to light," said Farah, speaking from Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. "We have very close coordination and are in touch with the Americans, and obviously we will continue that kind of contact."

Though Ethiopian troops have been stoned by protesters in Mogadishu in recent days, Farah said that longtime animosities between Ethiopia and Somalia are "history" now.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said that he will not withdraw troops until he has ferreted out certain Islamic leaders. Farah said that the government would not ask the Ethiopians to leave until the security situation in the country improves.

"The next step is the difficult one and the long one," he said. "To build the country, and to go forward."